Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s visit to India starting today will mark a diplomatic reset and give rise to a host of new business opportunities, the Indian High Commissioner to Canada said. These include nuclear power, oil and critical minerals, according to the top diplomat.
The trip will cover a “massive” agenda, which is likely to be formalized in cooperation agreements across a wide range of sectors, including research, artificial intelligence, quantum computing and education.
Carney’s visit is also expected to include a deal to expand uranium supplies from Canada to India, Indian High Commissioner Dinesh Patnaik said. New Delhi has also expressed a desire to buy heavy crude oil and other energy products from Canada and is considering potential investments in pipelines, terminals and other infrastructure.
The trip marks a big shift in a relationship that was very strained a year ago. In 2024, Canada decided to expel six Indian officials, alleging that government-linked agents had waged a campaign of violence, intimidation and extortion against Canadian citizens. It was about a year after then-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau shocked Canadians by saying there were credible allegations that India was behind the murder of a Sikh activist in British Columbia.
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Everything has changed since Carney replaced Trudeau. “We are looking at a total reset of the relationship,” Patnaik said in an interview, according to Bloomberg.
“We’re not school kids with a single problem — you took my bag, you took my lunch box,” he said. “You are the largest democracy in terms of size, we are the largest in terms of population. And so it is inevitable and natural for us to work together, and so this visit seals that.”
Mike Carney’s visit to India
Mike Carney flies to India on Thursday before continuing to Australia and Japan. The trip underscores his trade-led foreign policy and is central to his efforts to overcome a diplomatic rift.
Carney and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi agreed in November to resume talks toward a free trade deal, and that deal could be signed within a year, Patnaik said. Although the two countries have tried — and failed — to reach an agreement for years, Patnaik said both economies have evolved and momentum is now gathering momentum.
He pointed to India’s recent massive pact with the European Union as evidence of this shift. “Political intent overshadows everything,” he said. Of course, US tariffs have changed the incentives for both countries to deal with other trading partners.
The visit caps nearly a year of efforts by Carney to thaw relations with Modi. A diplomatic spat erupted in September 2023 when Trudeau accused the Indian government of orchestrating the murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar – a claim fiercely denied by the Modi government.
Towards the end of Trudeau’s term, both parties gradually began to patch things up. The murder case has largely become a matter for Canadian courts, where four Indian nationals are awaiting trial.
Some Sikh separatists in Canada say India is still targeting them. The World Sikh Organization said this week that the prominent activist and his family had been warned by police about threats allegedly coming from Indian government agents.
But a Canadian official said at a background briefing that the government was confident that such activity was not continuing. He said both countries have robust mechanisms to deal with transnational repression — and that Carney would not have made the trip if officials believed threats persisted.
Carney will travel to Mumbai and New Delhi, avoiding Punjab, where a large part of Canada’s Sikh diaspora has its roots and where separatist tensions are at the root. He will meet business and education leaders and, along with Modi, will revive the Canada-India CEO Forum, the Canadian official said.
In Australia, Carney will meet Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and address parliament. The CEOs of some of Canada’s largest pension funds will attend this leg of the trip, and announcements of expanded defense and research cooperation are expected.
Carney will conclude his trip in Tokyo, where he will meet with Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi for the first time since her landslide election victory. Japan is Canada’s second largest trading partner in the region after China.
Patnaik said he sees a different Canadian approach under Carney.
“He realized that Canada has to behave as a global power, which means that a global power has multidimensional relationships with all countries,” Patnaik said.
He said India welcomed Carney’s speech at the Davos summit, which described a new era of great power rivalry and outlined a strategy of “variable geometry” for middle powers – creating shifting alliances to prevent larger powers from dominating them.
But Patnaik added that it is also nothing new for people living in India. “What Prime Minister Carney said in Davos is what we’ve been saying for the last 50 years,” he said with a laugh. “In a way, it leads us to see ourselves more clearly in the mirror for who we are.”
Key things
- The visit marks a pivotal moment in Canada-India relations and focuses on sectors as diverse as nuclear power and artificial intelligence.
- Historical tensions are being resolved through renewed diplomatic efforts and cooperative agreements.
- Economic shifts like India’s pact with the EU point to evolving trade dynamics that both countries want to explore.
